Search Engine Optimization and Accessibility

Juicy Studio has a high-level overview of the relationship between accessible markup and search engine optimisation.

Web Usability Checking for Blind and Vision Impaired

The Web Standards Group recently held a presentation by David Woodbridge and Robert Spriggs of the Royal Blind Society.

The presentation was based around a list of questions that Royal Blind Society's Adaptive Technology Consultants commonly ask when checking websites for accessibility. The questions could also be used as an auditing tool for web designers and developers to assess their sites for accessibility.

Presentation notes and further background information are now available.

iTour is iNaccessible

Paging through Apple's .Mac iTour, one wonders why all but one piece of text on the page is an image. Because of this, one wonders why nearly every image on the page is missing an alt attribute. Apple's product offering is showing a burgeoning support for other web standards; why is .Mac, a product created for the universal access of information, left out in the cold?

Mark Pilgrim on Gmail Accessibility

Mark Pilgrim has a long blog entry on the Accessibility of Google's up and coming Gmail service.

DRC Response to Discussion on Accessify Forum

Malarkey from the forum recently identified the use of misguiding sales tactics to win Web Accessibility related business. I'm please to let you know that Mike Abbot took the initiative in letting the DRC know about it, who have now sent a response.

RNIB speaks out following DRC Report

News release: 81% of UK web sites failing disabled people - RNIB says make sites user-friendly

The Royal National Institute of the Blind (RNIB) is calling on businesses, the Government and the web design industry to make their web sites user-friendly for people with sight problems and other disabilities. The call follows a report published 14 April 2004 which reveals that 81 per cent of UK web sites fail to meet even the most basic accessibility requirements for disabled people.

RNIB warmly welcomes the publication of the report by the Disability Rights Commission (DRC) which highlights a need for more Government resource to be directed towards initiatives that help businesses ensure their web sites are usable by disabled people.

A DRC Investigation studied one thousand sites to arrive at a set of recommendations on how web sites can be made easier for disabled people to use. Fifteen recommendations have been published in the report of the DRC Formal Investigation into Web Accessibility.

Julie Howell, Digital Policy Development Officer at RNIB, said: "Businesses have a social responsibility as well as a legal duty to ensure that disabled people can use their web sites. Add to this the compelling business case (there are 8.7 million disabled people in the UK). The DRC findings would indicate that there is a need for additional Government initiatives and resources to make businesses aware of what they must do to reach disabled customers."

The DRC recommendation that the Government should 'facilitate the establishment of a code of practice for accessible web site development' is being strongly endorsed by RNIB.

RNIB provides resources that help businesses develop an understanding of how disabled customers can be reached:

• an online Web Access Centre packed with information and guidance
• a web site auditing service
• a consultancy service to help businesses tap into a market with a revenue potential of £45bn per year
• RNIB's 'See it Right' award, a symbol that indicates that a web site has been designed to be usable by disabled people.

In response to the DRC report RNIB is announcing additional measures:

• a series of regional seminars for businesses that wish learn about web accessibility policy, featuring practical demonstrations of the technology blind and partially sighted people use to read web sites
• RNIB is investigating the feasibility of creating a 'social firm' that will provide web site developers with ready access to blind and partially sighted people to feedback on web site designs.

Julie Howell added, "RNIB urges businesses to consider the practical improvements that can be made to their web sites to ensure disabled people can enjoy the same quality of experience on the web as everyone else."

The report is available for download from the Disability Rights Commission web site at http://www.drc-gb.org/publicationsandreports/report.asp

A web cast of the launch event is available at http://www.drc-gb.org/webcast/

Notes:

1. RNIB helps people with sight problems to live full and independent lives. We campaign to change society's actions and assumptions so that people with sight problems can enjoy the same rights, freedoms and responsibilities as fully sighted people.
2. If you or somebody you know has a sight problem RNIB can help. Call the RNIB Helpline on 0845-766 9999.
3. RNIB Web Access Centre provides the tools and resources needed to plan, build and test accessible web sites: http://www.rnib.org.uk/webaccesscentre
4. Enquiries about RNIB's 'See it Right' award and web accessibility consultancy services: webaccess@rnib.org.uk
5. Details of RNIB Web Accessibility Seminars will be released shortly.
6. Further information about RNIB's 'Social Firm' will be released later in 2004.
7. RNIB's Technology Helpline can be contacted at technology@rnib.org.uk.
8. For more information about the DRC and the Formal Investigation into Web Accessibility and copy of the report, contact Alyson Rose in the DRC press office: 0207-543 7044 or Alyson.Rose@drc-gb.org.

More on the UK Disability Rights Commision Report

WaSP has a write up of the report, as does The Register, and Gez Lemon's been blogging about it too.

Also you can still go talk it over in the forum.

New on the DRC (Disbaility Rights Commision) Website

The DRC Website has a new toolkit for businesses minisite. Looking briskly through it Web Accessibility is specifically mentioned under the communication analysis section.

Web Accessibility: What's the Next Step?

Sorry for the last minute notice, some details here of a Web Cast on Wednesday the 21^st of April.

Please join the Disability Law Resource Project at ILRU for the Web cast on Web Accessibility: What's the Next Step?

On Wednesday, April 21, 2004 the topic will be: "Taking Web Accessibility to the Next Level with an Internet Accessibility Rally (AIR) Program."

The Web cast will run from 3:00 - 4:30 pm Eastern, 2:00 Central, 1:00 Mountain, 12:00 Pacific, 11:00 Alaska, 9:00 a.m. Hawaii.

This Web cast will discuss the Accessibility Internet Rally (AIR) program, the issues it addresses, how it meets community needs, current organizing efforts in Houston, and how you can bring the award-winning program to your city or region.

To link to the first Web cast and download accompanying materials visit:
http://www.ilru.org/online/index.html

Get a Good Feed

The topic of RSS feeds came up in conversation the other day, and it prompted me to remind visitors to this site that there is an RSS feed available right now (and has been for a long time). If you're not sure what this is all about, try the 'Syndicate' link and you'll find more information about how you can use this RSS feed. Enjoy!

British Standard for recommended best practices and use of accessibility metadata

Taken from Seb Schmoller's monthly mailing.

BSI has set up a new panel to develop a new standard on e-learning accessibility. Andy Heath of Sheffield Hallam University has been appointed to convene the panel which will oversee the work. According to BSI, the first steps in this work will be to scope the project and prepare a proposal for consideration by BSI. To this end an open meeting is being held at Sheffield Hallam University on Monday 24 May at to begin work on the project. More details are contained in BSI's summary [160 kB PDF].

Rich Media Accessibility

While searching for the correct media type for a PDF I came across the NCAM Rich Media Accessibility site which looks well built and seems to have a lot of useful information. Never did find the media type for PDF so if someone know please drop me a mail.

Websites 'failing' disabled users - UK Disability Rights Commision (DRC) Report

The BBC (UK British Broadcasting Corporation) has recently published an article covering the recent UK DRC investigation of the Accessibility of UK Web Sites:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/3626533.stm

You can also read the news article at the DRC and the full report.

The W3C has published a statement.

Thanks to Allan Rooms (W2 Networking), Julie Patterson (Sheffield University) and Joey (Transitionary) for letting us know.

Added - Just noticed Isofarro beat me to it, so go talk it over in the forum.

DDA at ALA

Over at A List Apart, Trenton Moss debunks some popular myths about Web accessibility and the law for those involved in the design and development of UK-based websites. In particular he points out that the Disability Discrimination Act does specifically mention websites and has done so for some time.

Discussion of: DDA at ALA

New Faces to Accessify

This is a little late, but there's no excuse for not welcoming some new contributors to Accessify's news page. In no particular order (well, actually, it's the order they appear in my address book!) we have Anne van Kesteren, whose blog I have read on many occassions and enjoyed the discussions there. For those who don't know, Anne is actually male and he hails from The Netherlands.

Ethan Marcotte is an all-round good egg who put me up when my accommodation plans went badly wrong at SXSW2004 (I had no plans, really), so I rewarded him with more unpaid work. Am I not kind? Ethan runs Virtua Studios alongside his personal blog, sidesh0w.

Richard Rutter runs a site with the best name in the world, namely Clagnut. I don't know what it means but it sounds rude, and that's good enough for me.

Russ Weakley is one of the co-founders of the Web Standards Group, which has a geographic heart in Australia but whose members now span the globe. Hopefully Russ will report on all the web accessibility issues down under, including the many events that the Web Standards Group are organising there.

Finally, Sharron Rush, co-author (with John Slatin) of the book Maximum Accessibility will be posting news from her base in Austin Texas where many wonderful people involved in web accessibility seem to be based. Sharron is heavily involved in Knowbility.org which does great things in promoting accessibility for all.

So, welcome on board one and all and happy posting!

Making websites accessible to users who are blind or have low vision

David Woodbridge and Robert Spriggs from the Royal Blind Society will be doing a presentation at the Sydney Web Standards Group, 15th April 2004. Further event information.

Accessibility review of Google's GMail

Mark Pilgrim – of Dive into Accessibility fame – takes Google's free webmail service for a spin and documents GMail's utter disregard for even the most basic accessibility requirements.

Discuss this article in the forum…

UK Disability Rights Commision - Website Investigation Results

Just in from the DRC...

Findings from a report into the first comprehensive investigation into the user-friendliness of websites will be web cast on Wednesday 14th April from 1030 to 1200 BST.

The Disability Rights Commission's report - The Web : Access and Inclusion for Disabled People - is being presented at a media briefing in London. You are welcome to take part by logging onto the web cast at www.drc-gb.org and submitting a question online to a panel of experts.

The investigation studied 1,000 British websites across five key sectors:

• business
• e-commerce
• entertainment & leisure
• government and web services

You will need Windows Media Player to veiw the web cast. If you need to download this it is best to do so in advance. Please go to:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/search.aspx?categoryid=4&displaylang=en

Accessibility in Practice Conference – 23rd June 2004

Accessibility in Practice conference at the University of Central Lancashire, Wednesday 23rd June. The conference aims to address the gulf between the theory and practice of web accessibility.

Keynote by Bob Regan – senior product manager at Macromedia – and other expert speakers including Jim Byrne, Zoe Neumann, Peter Rainger and Sydney Tyrell.

"Early Bird" discount available to those who book before Friday, 30th April 2004.

Caring about Accessibility

At a panel presentation at this year's South by South West (SXSW2004) Interactive conference, Jeff Veen publicly said: "I don't care about accessibility."

That's some statement. Read it again:

"I don't care about accessibility."

Looks pretty bad doesn't it? Jeff Veen said that? Yes, he did, I heard it and so did many others attending the event. But ... they heard it in context, and what Jeff really meant that was 'as a practitioner of web standards, by doing things correctly he almost doesn't have to think about accessibility, that it almost comes automatically as a by-product'.

The trouble is, this is not always the case, and the other problem is that too many people are latching on to the Jeff Veen soundbite and the message is getting twisted along the way (something that Mr Veen surely never intended!).

Matt May, a W3C guy with a special responsibility for accessibility (namely the Web Accessibility Initiative, Web Content Accessibility Guidelines and more), has put his thoughts on the issue together over at his personal web log, BestKungFu:

I know he didn't mean that, because I saw the presentation, and I read his notes. Veen gets it, because getting it is his job, and has been since before most Web designers got their first cramps from typing angle brackets. He knows you have to care about it, even if you are a standardista. And if you heard that in his message, you can stop here.

But if you quoted him out of context saying "I don't care about accessibility" on your blog, as many did, you need to read on.

Accessibility is definitely not a no-brainer, even if coding to standards is. You cannot assume that a site will be completely accessible simply by using the correct markup (but it helps).

Belated Congratulations to 'The Gardener'

I've said as much in private correspondence with all concerned, but because of my current travelling antics I have been a bit slack in saying the following in a more public arena:

Congratulations Dave!

I am referring to the South By South West (SXSW2004) Web Awards, in particular the Developer Resource category, which this site made to the final 5 nominations. The winner, as you almost certainly know by now, was the CSS Zen Garden - which also went on to win best in show.

I just wanted to say, belatedly as it is, that it was a real honour to appear in the finalists list alongside the eventual double-winner, but also to be there alongside Keith Robinson (Asterisk), who wore a really cool over-the-top shirt to the finals (which kept me good company in my Mambo Fighting Furry Animals shirt ... but that's another story) and James Craig (Cookiecrook) who organised a great dinner meet-up for all us CSS/web standards twonks. It was a long way for me to travel to get there but I certainly didn't regret it.

So, what sites are going to be the ones that get everyone excited this coming year, and thus make it to next year's finals?